PERSPECTIVE: Creativity is still the heart and soul of the advertising industry.(Brief Article)

For advertising's doom-mongers (of which there seem to be an increasing number - and not all of them over-paid, under-motivated chief execs), there is more news to warm the cockles this week.

The AAR has monitored the number of major creative pitches in the first half of this year, and it's down by more than a quarter. Alain de Pouzilhac talks about 'a more negative market than forecast, rendered even more difficult by the lack of visibility' in Havas' first-half results released this week (revenues down 3.4 per cent, by the way, see page 7). Leo Burnett is to be investigated over so-called 'billing irregularities' for its work on the US Army's advertising account, promoting further loss of confidence in advertising and media stocks. Trinity Mirror has announced an 8 per cent slump in advertising revenue.

It's a depressing list, without even the virtue of surprise. But before redundancy starts to look like an interesting option, read the piece on William Eccleshare's return to advertising on page 17.

Ignore, for the moment, that the price Eccleshare has paid for this rebirth is the bloody and political task of marrying Young & Rubicam and Wunderman into a single management structure. It seems he can't wait to get back to adland, and his reasons should serve as a reminder to everyone in the business why - recession or no - this is still very much a great place to be.

Eccleshare says he missed the energy and ...